


Tea and Consequences

by a_mere_trifle



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-15
Updated: 2010-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-10 13:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_mere_trifle/pseuds/a_mere_trifle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(alt-timeline) John Egbert chats with Death, meets a friend, and tries to figure out the rules of the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea and Consequences

John blinked.

Something seemed different, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. It kind of reminded him of a conversation with-- well-- any of his friends, really; the vague sense that there was something going on just a few inches over his head. It was kind of a worrying feeling, but comforting in its familiarity.

It was bright. That was what was bothering him. It was brighter now than it had been before. In fact, it was pure white, almost glowing, and it hadn't been like that before. It had been darker, and more brown and gray and maybe purple? And green and red. There hadn't been any white at all, much less a whole room of it. Yeah, he was pretty sure it had been a cave, and this was not a cave--

...Red.

John sat up. Everything looked a little sharper, now, in more ways than he could explain. The wall was small and square and featureless and absolutely white. Something about it was tugging at his memory, but he couldn't figure out why or how-- it was a featureless white wall, what could be distinctive about that?

There was a clinking sound to his left. John turned.

Death was sitting behind a tea set, at a small round table.

"Oh," said John.

Death nodded.

"...Crap," said John, through a tightening throat, and ducked his head into his sleeve.

There was a scraping sound, and a rustling. After a moment, a shadow fell across John's face. He looked up, to see that Death knelt in front of him, holding out a cup of tea in surprisingly delicate hands.

"I don't... T-thanks, but... Thanks," said John, and took it, trying to take a few sips through his tears.

It was salty, but there was something sweet about it all the same.

-

"Look, I'm really sorry-- I mean, actually sorry--" said John, looking down at his token. Death had let him play blue. "I just don't think I'm up to this right now."

Death looked down, then held up another box.

"No, Monopoly won't help, I mean... It's not your fault. It's just-- I just died. Because I trusted the wrong person and was really, really stupid, and now that I think about it, I think I may have put my friends in danger too. So... I'm just not in the mood for any more games right now. I'm not very good at them today."

Death nodded, looking down-- then handed John a video game controller.

John blinked, his eyes following the trail of the wire to the television that had obviously always been in the corner. "I really don't think--"

Death pushed his chair a little closer to the screen.

"Why do you keep wanting me to play games, anyway?"

Death took out a pocketwatch, tapped its face, and refilled John's cup of tea.

John sighed. Little as he wanted to play a video game right now, he wasn't really feeling up to picking a fight with Death, given how beautifully his last fight had gone. Best to play along. He looked at the screen; this looked like some anime game, anyway, and--

"Wait, why is this in Japanese?"

Death shrugged.

"You want me to play this when I don't even understand what's going on??"

Death cocked his head, and it occured to John that that was a pretty good description of what he'd been doing all day. He wasn't sure if that made this better or worse.

"Am I supposed to learn something from this...?"

Death shook his head.

"Do I come back to life if I win?"

Death shook his head.

"Is it a metaphor, or something?"

Death shook his head.

"...Okay, whatever," said John, and turned back to the screen. Oh, god, they were still singing. What the hell was this.

Death watched John stare in perplexity at the television, nodded to himself, and looked down at his watch, waiting.

-

"..._What_," John said, for what had to be at least the hundredth time today, a faintly hopeless tone to his voice. He knew by now nothing was going to suddenly start making sense.

"Whatcha doing?"

John jumped. There was a dark-haired girl pulling up a chair next to him, with a grin. She was wearing a long skirt, a blue shirt, and glasses, and--

"Jade!" he realized. "Hi!"

"Hi, John! It's nice to meet you! In real life, anyway." Jade giggled.

"I-- wait..." John frowned. "But... if you're here..."

"Oh, maybe that wasn't the right way to put it, then. In the flesh? Oh, no, not at all." She bit her lip thoughtfully, either not noticing or ignoring John's face freezing in shock. "Face-to-face? Yeah, that'll work! Face-to face."

"But, that means..."

"Well, yeah." Jade shrugged. "But don't worry. It won't be for long. Oh, hey, did Kozue just push you down the stairs?"

Two questions struggled for dominance in John's brain, each of equal urgency. "Wait, you _know_ this game?!" won out.

"I've never played it, but I'm pretty sure I know the show." She hummed along with a bit of the background music, and giggled. "You should really be careful about flirting with Miki."

"Oh crap, is _that_ what I was doing?" John glared down at the controller reproachfully, as if the innocent electronic device had led him into sin. "Is this a dating sim?!"

"I think more a visual novel. But you probably want to stay away from the guy with the red hair, just in case." She grinned.

"Well, I will!" John glanced at the screen. "Am I in the infirmary again? What did that weird blue-haired girl do?!"

"We warned you about stairs," Jade said, and cracked up. "I told you, bro!"

"It keeps happening," John said, and for once, he thought he did a pretty good job of making it sound like a joke as he hid his face behind his hand.

-

If Jade had noticed his brief bout of despair over the fact that his life had turned into a series of incomprehensible games he didn't even know how to win, she hadn't given any indication of it, and a couple more cups of honey-sweetened tea had taken most of it away.

"I still don't understand anything that just happened," he said, watching the credits roll.

"I'm not sure I do, either. Well, it's Utena; if you know for sure what's going on, you couldn't have been paying attention."

"What, seriously?"

"Yeah. It's all right. It doesn't make sense to anybody." Jade smiled softly. "But sometimes, if you go over it long enough, and you learn enough, and you listen to what everyone else says, you can make a little sense out of it. Hey, you got a good ending, didn't you?"

"That was a good ending?"

"Well, you didn't get hit by a car, so..."

John shook his head. "I really don't know whether I want you to explain to me what the hell I just wasted several hours of my li-- uh, playing, or whether I never, ever want to think about this ever again."

Jade just laughed, warm and comforting, and John wondered if it made him an awful person, him being so glad she was here.

"You said something about how it wouldn't be long?" he asked, remembering. "What did you mean?"

"Well..." Jade looked down, and for the first time since he'd met her in person, she wasn't smiling.

"Are we... going to...?" _Hell?_ John couldn't say. At this point, he couldn't say he'd be surprised.

"What? No, no." Jade shook her head. "It's just... you know how I didn't warn you about that stupid blind girl trolling you, or about not going to fight the Denizen?"

"Uh... I guess?" He hadn't thought about it, but yeah, Jade usually did know about that kind of thing.

"I didn't warn you because I didn't see it," she said. "And I didn't see it because it wasn't supposed to happen."

"But... it did happen," said John.

"Yeah," said Jade. "But not for long."

"...I don't get it," said John.

Jade nodded. "Okay. You know how there's the Heir of Breath, the Seer of Light, the Knight of Time, and the Witch of Space?"

"Uh, yeah, Nanna said something about that."

"Dave is the Knight of Time," said Jade. "And he and Rose are fine."

John nodded, though he still had no idea what she was talking about. "So..."

"So he's going to change all this," she said. "He's going to go back in time and make it so this never happened. That's how it's supposed to go. And that's why I didn't see it'd have to go this way first."

"...I still don't think I get it," said John. "If he makes it so that this never happened, what happens to us?"

"Well, you don't go and fight the denizen, and I don't... get hit by a meteor," said Jade.

"But-- what happens to _us_?" said John.

"...I have no idea," said Jade, and smiled. "Didn't I tell you it wasn't just you?"

She had. But John wasn't sure that was really much comfort.

-

John tapped a cookie against the table. Jade was over there playing that crazy "Utena" game, even though she didn't seem to fully understand it herself. John, on the other hand, was biting his lip, trying hard not to ask, _So, what happens to you when you don't die?_ He was pretty sure Death wouldn't answer. He was faintly terrified Death might not _know_.

"I don't know when," Jade had said. "Time doesn't work the same here, anyway."

If he hadn't been such an idiot in the first place, he wouldn't have gotten himself mauled by the denizen, and Jade wouldn't have been hit by a meteor, and Rose and Dave wouldn't be fighting their way through this dumbass game alone. He really was the dumbest kid he knew. Probably the dumbest kid on the whole planet, especially now that there were only four left, and maybe the dumbest kid in the galaxy or medium or whatever.

Death pushed the plate of cookies toward him.

"That's really not gonna help," said John.

Death nodded.

"...So do you think we just fade away?" said John, though he was pretty sure he didn't really want to ask. "Or do we go back? Or do we stay here, or...?"

"...I don't know," said Jade. "But I think mostly, we disappear."

"Mostly?"

"I don't think anyone ever really forgets anything," said Jade, "not completely. It's all still there. Even if you can't quite put your finger on it; even if you never realize it. It's still there. And it can make a difference, too."

John considered that. "So next time, I won't be such a dumbass?"

"Or next time, you'll start blaming yourself for everything again." Jade frowned. "You really have to stop that, John. I want you to wake up."

"Huh?"

"It's not such a bad thing, to believe in people," said Jade.

"It is if it gets you killed," John pointed out, still feeling terribly bitter about that. He'd killed Jade, too, after all. How could she have gotten out of the path of a meteor without Sburb?

"Is it?" Jade shook her head. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have met each other in the first place. And right now, that probably isn't seeming like such a terrible thing, but it really, really is. The most awful thing possible."

"But..."

"You don't know how alone I would have been."

John looked up. Jade was staring at the floor, chewing at her lip.

"But anyway, I just wanted to be here for you," she said, smiling, though there was something faintly troubled in her eyes. "Even though it meant I couldn't be with the others. See, you're not the only one who does bad things. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it so much."

"What...?"

"Anyway..." said Jade. "I think it's time."

She reached out a hand to him. John blinked, still confused, and took it.

"See," she said, as the room grew brighter, "it doesn't matter that you don't know what's going to happen. People like you, John, can do the right thing anyway. That's why everything is going to be okay."

She squeezed his hand, and they were gone.

Death looked down at his tea set and his empty cups. He knew he didn't really have any shortage of company, but... there was something about the ones who got away.

-


End file.
